SanFilippo: Expectations rising for Flyers top lines

PHILADELPHIA -- If the Flyers are going to make any noise over the final 29 games and into the playoffs, they need to get results from the top two lines. Aside from Jeff Carter, who has been on a scoring upswing, the other five forwards whom the Flyers anticipate getting a wealth of scoring -- Mike Richards, Simon Gagne, Scott Hartnell, Danny Briere and Claude Giroux -- have not only been inconsistent but nearly invisible on the score sheet.

It was so much of a concern that coach Peter Laviolette juggled the lines to try and wake up the sleeping sticks.

And while Briere and Hartnell scored goals in a 2-1 win against the New York Islanders Saturday, Laviolette still wasn't happy with his lines.

Granted, it will take them time to jell, but the Flyers can't afford more time for development. They are in the thick of a wild playoff race that has them three points from being in 13th in the Eastern Conference although they sit in one of the precious eight playoff spots today.

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The Flyers need immediate results, and Laviolette is seething that he isn't getting them. After a blistering 10-game stretch in which the Flyers went 8-1-1 to climb out of a deep, dark hole, they have went 4-4-0. A .500 pace the rest of the way likely will mean missing the playoffs for the second time in four seasons.

Considering the Flyers are paying those frustrated five $22.6 million or about 40 percent of the team's salary, it's at a point where management has to be thinking fish or cut bait.

Teams struggle in the NHL all the time. They go through long stretches of games where things just aren't clicking.

Every team does it. The Penguins last season were a sub-.500 team on Valentine's Day and won the Stanley Cup.

This season Pittsburgh isn't suffering through the doldrums as much, but they are certainly not playing up to snuff lately, having dropped 11 of 19.

Yet, the guys they are counting on to score in bunches are still providing that offense.

Taking Carter out of the mix for the Flyers and Chris Kunitz out of the mix for the Penguins -- because he is hurt -- if a comparison is made between the other five players on the two teams' top two lines, a grave difference will be noticeable in production.

(All stats are prior to Saturday's games)

n In their last nine games, Sidney Crosby has six goals and eight assists while Mike Richards has one goal and three assists.

n Covering a 25-game span, Evgeni Malkin, who has been getting a lot of grief publicly for his "inconsistent play" has 11 goals and 14 assists, or one point per game. In that same span, Scott Hartnell, who is supposed to get the gritty and dirty points Mike Knuble used to accrue, had two goals and seven assists.

n In 13 games, Ruslan Fedotenko has just one goal, but has seven helpers, while Giroux has three goals and two assists -- and technically all three goals came while he was playing center on the third line.

n Over the same 13-game stretch, Bill Guerin has four goals and three assists compared Gagne's one goal and six assists.

n The one advantage a Flyer has comes on the final comparison where in the last 10 games Briere has one goal and five assists for six points as compared to Jordan Staal who has just five assists.

Sure, the Flyers are slightly better defensively as their quintet is a minus-13 compared to the Pens' which is minus-19, but the difference is stark enough to notice why Pittsburgh is in a comfortable playoff position, 12 points ahead of ninth place, while the Flyers are in a nail-biting spot.

Of course, this can also be laid at the feet of general manager Paul Holmgren, who has constructed this team, and done so in a manner that most of his top guys are not only paid handsomely, but signed long-term and have roster-restricting no-movement clauses.

In short, he tied his own hands by leaving himself very little leeway in the way of salary cap space (about $1.6 million as of Saturday), a farm system with few, if any, highly coveted prospects, and a bare cupboard when it comes to draft picks in the future.

So, he's going to have to sink or swim with what he's got. And if he's going to avoid getting pulled under by the strong rip tide of Ed Snider and Peter Luukko, he's going to need those scoring line players to throw him a life preserver the rest of this season.